Alpha Dog (2006)

Directed by: Nick Cassavetes | 122 minutes | biography, drama, crime | Actors: Bruce Willis, Matthew Barry, Emile Hirsch, Fernando Vargas, Vincent Kartheiser, Justin Timberlake, Shawn Hatosy, Alex Solowitz, Alec Vigil, Harry Dean Stanton, Ben Foster, David Thornton, Anton Yelchin, Sharon Stone, Olivia Wilde, Heather Wahlquist , Paul Johansson, Dominique Swain, Chris Marquette, Amanda Seyfried, Alex Kingston

‘Alpha Dog’ is based on the true story of drug dealer Jesse James Hollywood. In 2000, this then twenty-year-old American became the youngest ever on the list of the most wanted criminals in the United States. He is suspected of kidnapping and murdering 15-year-old Nicholas Samuel Markowitz in August 2000.

In the opening minutes of the film, the viewer gets to know Johnny Truelove (the character of Jesse James Hollywood, a role played by Emile Hirsch) and his gang. Elvis (Hatosy), Frankie (Timberlake), Tiko (Vargas) and Keith (Marquette) are a bunch of idlers. They hang out all day stoned, looking for girls to get into bed with and do whatever Truelove tells them to. When Jake Mazursky (Ben Foster) eventually owes Truelove a sum of money and can’t pay it, Truelove and his boys decide to teach Jake a lesson. On the way to his house, they run into Jake’s younger brother Zach. They decide to kidnap him and in this way demand the amount owed by Jake as a ransom. What at first seems like a simple and reasonably feasible plan turns into total drama when Zach finds a place in Truelove’s hallway. Truelove panics and sees brute force as the only way to resolve the situation.

Director Nick Cassavetes (‘The Notebook’ and ‘John Q’) makes a reasonable attempt with ‘Alpha Dog’ to put the story of one of the youngest Americans ever on the list of America’s Most Wanted. The cast is mostly made up of young actors, some more talented than others. Take, for example, American actor Ben Foster (also known from ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’, ‘Get Over It’ and ‘Hostage’). The way he portrays the part of Jake Mazursky is extremely brilliant. As a Jewish skinhead (very contradictory to biblical scriptures, with a swastika and ss-sign tattooed on his body), he is drugged throughout the movie and uses the word fuck at least three times in every sentence he utters. His facial expressions (drug dilated pupils) and angry outbursts are very believable. Singer/musician Justin Timberlake is making good progress in his film career. In 2005 he played one of the lead roles in ‘Edison’ and in 2007 he lent his voice for ‘Shrek the Third’. In ‘Alpha Dog’ he manages to convince at certain moments as Frankie, one of Truelove’s men. At other times, however, you realize as a viewer that you are watching a kid with a slightly too high-pitched squeaky voice who you would rather see in a music video on television than swearing, stoned and under-tattooed on the silver screen.

Special names in the cast are Bruce Willis and Sharon Stone. Both have not yet been seen for fifteen minutes and it is therefore the big question why these two well-known actors have been cast for this film. Undoubtedly a crowd puller, but beyond their fifteen minutes of fame, the duo contribute nothing to the film. In fact, Sharon Stone should have said no to this mini role. Especially the scene towards the end of the film, in which she appears in a fat suit under the guise of being ‘splashed by the drugs’, does not contribute at all to her already downhill career.

A typical American tagline like ‘inspired by true events’ always appeals to the public, but it remains to be seen whether ‘Alpha Dog’ is a more truthful or a more fictional film. The murder of Nicholas Markowitz (in the movie Zach Mazursky) actually happened. It is also highly plausible that the mastermind behind the kidnapping and murder of this boy is Jesse James Hollywood (Truelove). For the rest, however, Cassavetes puts down a film that is very reminiscent of ‘Bully’ (2001) and ‘Kids’ (1995): bored young people in California who have little more to do than deal drugs, get stoned, have sex and cram the word fuck into every sentence. Although ‘Alpha Dog’ evokes a bit of a ‘been there, seen that’ feeling, it is not a bad film. Bad acting is alternated with better and even good acting and the story shows again how unfair and harsh things sometimes get in this world. Don’t have too high expectations and this film might surprise and move you.